Common Pitfalls in the Evaluation and Management of Headache Case-Based Learning

Although headache is one of the most common complaints that patients bring to their clinicians, few physicians feel confident about its clinical evaluation and management. Is it a problem in its own right, or the presenting symptom of a serious medical condition? Loder, Rizzoli and Burch bring a practical case-based approach to this complex ailment, highlighting specific areas of diagnostic uncertainty in headache evaluation and treatment. Each case is taken from real-world clinical practice and reviews the diagnostic and treatment process in a systematic manner, identifying common challenges and pitfalls and describing newly issued treatment guidelines. Written in a question and answer format, this concise and useful guide in the Common Pitfalls series provides a step-by-step guide for everyday clinical practice, invaluable to anyone dealing with headache on a front-line basis.

Preface; 1. Confusing one benign headache with another; 2. Mistaking primary headache for another condition; 3. Missing dangerous causes of headache; 4. Pitfalls in diagnostic testing: imaging and lumbar puncture; 5. Pitfalls in diagnostic testing: blood, urine and other tests; 6. When historical or examination findings are missed or misinterpreted; 7. Errors in management of acute headache; 8. Pitfalls in drug therapy to prevent headaches; 9. Pitfalls in nonpharmacologic treatment of headache; 10. Challenges and special situations in headache management; 11. Medicolegal pitfalls in headache management; Index.

Elizabeth Loder is Chief of the Division of Headache and Pain at the Department of Neurology of the Brigham and Women's Faulkner Hospital, and Associate Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA. She is currently president of the American Headache Society.
Rebecca C. Burch is a staff physician at the Graham Headache Center at Brigham and Women's Faulkner Hospital in Boston, and an instructor in neurology at Harvard Medical School.
Paul B. Rizzoli is Director of the Graham Headache Center at Brigham and Women's Faulkner Hospital in Boston and an Assistant Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School.